Chapter 72 - 71: Crude Tactics

Chapter 72: Chapter 71: Crude Tactics

Leaving the Cultivation Technique District, he walked over to the Magic Artifact Counter. Unlike the Yun Family’s shops he’d seen before, the Hundred Treasures Tower had its magical artifacts on full display.

Moreover, next to each magical artifact was a jade slate that detailed its information and price.

"Fifteen Spirit Stones? So expensive?"

He saw that a single Lower-Grade Flying Sword cost a staggering fifteen Spirit Stones. This didn’t seem priced for Early-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators at all.

It was more like a magical artifact intended for Mid-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators.

For an Early-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator—taking the Yun Family Fishermen and Farmers as an example—fifteen Spirit Stones was equivalent to thirty years of wages.

’Spend that on a magical artifact? Would there be anything left for cultivation?’

He glanced at a Lower-Grade Defensive Spiritual Artifact. Sure enough, it was more than double the price of an Attack Spiritual Artifact, costing a whopping thirty-six Spirit Stones.

Only those in Mid-Stage Qi Refining could possibly accept such a price. No wonder the Yun Family Magazine had stated that magical artifacts were typically only owned by disciples from cultivation families.

As for Loose Cultivators, most of them used Sub-First Grade Spiritual Artifacts.

In other words, Mid-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators used Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, and Late-Stage Qi Refining Cultivators used Middle-Grade Spiritual Artifacts.

Although this limited a cultivator’s offensive capabilities, such was the unfortunate reality for Loose Cultivators.

The Magic Artifact Counter at the Hundred Treasures Tower was of a high caliber; they even had High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts for sale. However, they only offered High-Grade Attack Spiritual Artifacts, with no High-Grade Defensive Spiritual Artifacts available.

Chen Jianghe glanced over both the Middle-Grade and High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, getting a good sense of the pricing for magical artifacts.

A Middle-Grade Flying Sword cost fifty Spirit Stones, while a Middle-Grade Defensive Spiritual Artifact was about one hundred twenty-five Spirit Stones.

A High-Grade Flying Sword was priced at one hundred fifty Spirit Stones.

Since the counter didn’t have any High-Grade Defensive Spiritual Artifacts for sale, there was naturally no price listed.

As for the Top-Level Spiritual Artifacts used by Foundation Establishment Ancestors, this counter certainly wouldn’t sell them. But one could easily imagine they would command an astronomical price.

’Looks like many cultivators came to Jingyue Marketplace specifically for the grand opening of the Hundred Treasures Tower.’

Chen Jianghe saw many cultivators buying magical artifacts, clearly taking advantage of the Hundred Treasures Tower’s grand opening event with its five percent discount.

He even saw a few Ninth-Layer Qi Refining Great Cultivators purchasing High-Grade Flying Swords.

They handed over one hundred fifty Spirit Stones without a second thought, filling Chen Jianghe with envy. His entire net worth was just over eighty Spirit Stones.

But he wouldn’t choose to buy a Middle-Grade Spiritual Artifact.

’Magical artifacts are of little use to me right now. I don’t get into fights in the Inner Waters, so why waste the Spirit Stones?’

Besides, even if he were to buy a magical artifact in the future, he would go to the Yun Family’s Jingyue Treasure Pavilion. After all, they offered a five percent discount to Senior Fishermen and Farmers.

The Hundred Treasures Tower’s discount was for today only, but the Yun Family’s Jingyue Treasure Pavilion was different.

As long as he remained a Senior Fisherman and Farmer, he would always be entitled to that discount.

A moment later, he arrived at the Spirit Pill Counter. Seeing the crowd surrounding it, he had no choice but to get in line at the back.

’So many people are buying Misfortune-Breaking Pills!’

Chen Jianghe noticed that many cultivators were purchasing Misfortune-Breaking Pills. Just in the short time he’d been waiting in line, seven or eight cultivators had already bought some.

The Misfortune-Breaking Pill had significant drawbacks when it came to attempting a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment later on.

But upon further reflection, he understood why.

The majority of people in the Cultivation Realm had Five-Element Mixed Spirit Roots or Four-Element Pseudo Spirit Roots. Without a unique skill to fall back on, they had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment at all.

In fact, the vast majority would never even get the chance to take a Misfortune-Breaking Pill.

Just because Yun Bufan had successfully reached Foundation Establishment a few years ago didn’t mean it was easy for those with a Three-Element True Spirit Root.

In reality, without a family providing vast resources, the success rate for reaching Foundation Establishment in the Cultivation Realm was less than fifty percent even for those with a Three-Element True Spirit Root.

Therefore, just being able to reach Late-Stage Qi Refining already made one an elite in the Cultivation Realm.

The Elder Ancestors of many Cultivation Families were themselves Ninth-Layer Qi Refining Great Cultivators.

"Eight Qi Storage Pills."

"One moment. That will be thirty-eight Spirit Stones."

The female clerk, an Early-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator, retrieved eight Qi Storage Pills for Chen Jianghe, placed them in a Jade Bottle, and handed it over.

Chen Jianghe paid the Spirit Stones, took the Jade Bottle, and left.

He then went to the herbal ingredients counter, where he bought eight Spirit-Encompassing Flowers, paying thirty Spirit Stones and forty grains of Spiritual Sand.

Then he arrived at the Spirit Talisman Counter.

He wasn’t there to buy Spirit Talismans, but the talismans and Talisman-Making Materials were sold at the same counter.

"One Lower-Grade Peach Wood Talisman Pen."

"Of course. Nine Spirit Stones and fifty grains of Spiritual Sand."

Talisman Pen in hand, Chen Jianghe left the Spirit Talisman Counter. He wandered around the first floor for a bit longer and wanted to check out the second floor, but he discovered it didn’t admit cultivators below the Late Stage of Qi Refining.

He had no choice but to leave the Hundred Treasures Tower.

’Saving four Spirit Stones... it really is a small stroke of luck.’

This was only because he had too few Spirit Stones. If he had enough to buy a High-Grade Spiritual Artifact or a Cultivation Technique, he would have saved even more.

The opening of Jingyue Marketplace was indeed a small opportunity.

After this large procurement of resources, he was left with three Spirit Stones and fifty grains of Spiritual Sand.

Checking the time, he headed for Tingyu Pavilion. His appointment with Talisman Master Chu Lang was approaching.

This time, however, he was the first to arrive at Tingyu Pavilion. He waited for about an hour before Talisman Master Chu Lang finally showed up late.

The moment Talisman Master Chu Lang saw the twenty-seven Spirit Stones, a look of surprise crossed his face. He clearly hadn’t expected the profit-sharing to be so high this year.

He immediately surmised that Chen Jianghe hadn’t experimented with other types of Spirit Talismans, but had instead focused on drawing the one he was best at.

He had obviously heard about the Hundred Treasures Tower’s discount in advance.

Considering Chen Jianghe’s relationship with Yu Daniu, it all made sense.

He was also well aware that next year’s share of the profits would likely be much lower.

After bidding farewell to Talisman Master Chu Lang, Chen Jianghe headed to the port, preparing to return to his farming waters.

His meeting with Yu Daniu and Zhou Miaoyun was still more than half a month away.

As for reminding Yu Daniu about setting up a passenger boat route, today wasn’t a good day for it. It was the first day of the Jingyue Immortal Tower’s grand opening, so Yu Daniu was bound to be swamped.

Besides, he didn’t have many Spirit Stones left on him either.

"Fellow Daoist, please wait."

"Can I help you, Fellow Daoist?"

Chen Jianghe had just arrived at the port and was about to board his boat when a young man darted out and blocked his path, causing his expression to darken.

It was a young man with a simple, honest-looking face and a cultivation at the Fourth-Layer Qi Refining. Judging by his clothes, he was also a Senior Fisherman and Farmer.

"Could we go aboard and talk?"

The honest-looking youth pointed to a fishing boat to the side and asked with a smile.

"We can talk right here," Chen Jianghe said, his face grim. He didn’t board the young man’s fishing boat, his displeasure obvious.

He was already disinclined to interact with others, so being suddenly stopped by a Fourth-Layer Qi Refining Senior Fisherman and Farmer naturally annoyed him.

The honest-looking youth’s smile faltered, and a harsh glint flashed in his eyes for a split second before he said awkwardly, "I have a lucrative opportunity I’d like to collaborate with you on, Fellow Daoist."

Chen Jianghe scoffed inwardly.

’I knew that being stopped like this couldn’t be anything good.’

’And here it was, an offer too good to be true.’

"What kind of opportunity?"

"I have a secret channel, completely safe, for selling surplus Little Cyan Fish. You can profit three Spirit Stones per fish, but as the middleman, I’ll need to charge you fifty grains of Spiritual Sand per fish, Fellow Daoist."

The honest-looking youth whispered, glancing around as if afraid of being discovered.

"Oh? Such a great opportunity? Then I suppose I’ll have to go to Port No. 1 first and sign a secrecy contract with the buyer, right?"

"Huh? How did you know?"